Chapter 55: Ice-Fire Island

In the Yitian world, the northern seas.

The sun shone brightly, and a cool sea breeze stirred ripples across the waves.

A ship capable of carrying dozens of people sailed steadily across the sea.

Zhang Jie of Yitian, clad in dark martial attire, stood on the deck.

The gentle sea breeze stirred his jet-black, shoulder-length hair.

In ancient times, it was held that “the body, hair, and skin are received from one’s parents and must not be carelessly damaged.”

Thus, Zhang Jie, adapting to local customs, kept his hair long.

Ahead of the ship, the silhouette of an island emerged faintly.

“Sir, we’re still some time from Ice-Fire Island—why not rest below deck for now?”

The captain, his skin darkened by sun and wind, approached Zhang Jie with a deferential tone.

“No need.”

Zhang Jie declined the captain’s suggestion.

He knew the captain was right—seeing a mountain doesn’t mean you’ve reached it.

Though the island’s outline was visible, it would take at least several hours to reach its shores,

let alone navigate around it to find a suitable landing spot.

Yet though the captain meant well,

this ancient wooden vessel was no twenty-first-century luxury cruise liner,

equipped with every comfort and amenity.

Like all wooden ships, its cabin was dark and damp,

infested with rats, and reeked of sailors who hadn’t bathed in weeks,

mixed with the fermenting stench of miscellaneous cargo—truly soul-crushing.

On his first visit, Zhang Jie, with his acute sense of smell, nearly collapsed from the odor.

Since then, Zhang Jie preferred meditating on deck rather than entering the cabin.

“Then do as you please, sir.”

The captain’s gaze toward Zhang Jie held hidden awe.

When Zhang Jie first boarded,

he had assumed he was some noble scion seeking thrills aboard.

He’d even prepared to mock this handsome, pale-skinned young master,

clearly pampered and soft-skinned.

After all, the sea cared nothing for one’s lineage—when storms came, they came without mercy.

Even children raised by the shore struggled to endure the tossing waves.

A pampered young master like Zhang Jie would surely vomit uncontrollably and lose his appetite.

Yet he discovered Zhang Jie showed no discomfort whatsoever, as if he’d spent decades at sea.

Had that been all, he’d merely have marveled at Zhang Jie’s adaptability—not felt awe.

What filled him with awe was during a sudden violent storm,

when he and the crew clung to ropes, trembling,

silently praying to Mazu for salvation,

Zhang Jie walked calmly through the tempest without any protection,

as if the torrential rain and knife-like winds did not exist.

Even more astonishing: after the storm passed, Zhang Jie’s clothes were completely dry.

From then on, he knew Zhang Jie was no ordinary man.

Had Zhang Jie not clearly come from inland, he’d have sworn he was the Dragon King incarnate!

After all, who but the Dragon King who commands wind and rain could treat a storm as nothing?

Zhang Jie paid no mind to the captain’s awe.

Since sharing the Tianlong Zhang Jie’s six-decade-long Beiming Divine Art, his Nine Yang Divine Art had reached perfection.

As long as his consumption didn’t reach a threshold, his inner energy was virtually inexhaustible.

The tiny amount of energy used to shield himself from wind and rain was less than what he regenerated simultaneously.

In the terms of the martial world, he had reached the Master realm of “not even a feather could be added, not even a fly could land.”

He had never encountered the bottleneck requiring a near-death crisis to fully unlock the Nine Yang Divine Art’s potential.

Perhaps because, as a transmigrator, he had already truly died once.

The experience of being crushed into a 2D plane by the Great Yun still haunted him.

Even after reincarnating for over a decade, he remembered it vividly.

“Ice-Fire Island, Xie Xun, the Dragon-Slaying Blade.”

Zhang Jie gazed at the island ahead, his eyes deep.

He had traveled countless miles from the western Kunlun Mountains’ Zhu Wu Linked Mountain Villa to the eastern Ice-Fire Island

solely for the Dragon-Slaying Blade in the hands of the Golden-Maned Lion, Xie Xun.

Yet Zhang Jie had no intention of using the blade to “command the world and make all bow.”

No matter how famed the Dragon-Slaying Blade, it remained merely a divine weapon within the martial world.

It was not like the spiritual treasures or immortal artifacts of the xianxia world, capable of shattering mountains and reversing rivers on their own.

In terms of power level, Zhang Jie judged the Dragon-Slaying Blade might even be inferior to an E-class weapon used by a Warlord in the “Devouring the Stars” universe.

What Zhang Jie sought were the secret manuals hidden within the blade by Guo Jing and Huang Rong:

the “Eighteen Dragon-Subduing Palms,” the “Nine Yin Manual,” and Yue Fei’s “Wu Mu Legacy.”

Zhang Jie, already possessing the “Beiming Divine Art” and “Nine Yang Divine Art,” did not lack cultivation techniques.

What he lacked were supreme martial arts like the “Eighteen Dragon-Subduing Palms” or the “Six Meridian Sword Art.”

If cultivation techniques were like building a reservoir to store water,

then supreme martial arts were the sluice gates controlling its release.

With identical inner energy, the one who could unleash more power with greater precision would prevail.

“The Eighteen Dragon-Subduing Palms deliver exceptional offensive power.”

Zhang Jie stroked his chin in thought.

From Tianlong to She Diao to Shen Diao to Yitian,

the Eighteen Dragon-Subduing Palms had always ranked atop the martial pyramid.

In Tianlong, there was the man whose roar alone made him invincible.

In She Diao, Hong Qiugong, one of the Five Greats.

In Shen Diao, Guo Jing, the great hero, became renowned across the land.

In Yitian, the Eighteen Dragon-Subduing Palms appeared rarely—only Song Qingshu had used them.

Yet within months of acquiring them, Song Qingshu could

match Yu Lianzhou, a top-tier martial artist, a feat no less astonishing.

Moreover, when the Eighteen Dragon-Subduing Palms were unleashed, golden dragon-shaped qi enveloped the body—dazzling to behold!

Zhang Jie: Strength may be temporary, but style lasts a lifetime!

After sharing, Zhang Jie—now as exhilarating as Yan Zu and Tian Le, just slightly weaker than the readers—declared:

“The Eighteen Dragon-Subduing Palms are meant for me!”

“I must also claim the Nine Yin Manual and the Wu Mu Legacy!”

Zhang Jie opened and closed his fingers in a grasping motion:

Children choose one; adults take all.

So he would take the Eighteen Dragon-Subduing Palms, the Wu Mu Legacy, and the Nine Yin Manual—all of them!

How did Zhang Jie know the location of Ice-Fire Island?

Though the Yitian Tu Long Ji did not explicitly record Ice-Fire Island’s position,

Zhang Jie had roughly calculated its location using the world map from his previous life.

The Ice-Fire Island in Yitian Tu Long Ji was most likely the Kamchatka Peninsula.

Jin Yong never stated in the original text that Ice-Fire Island was an island surrounded entirely by sea.

In fact, Ice-Fire Island was vast, extending far north without end—Kamchatka Peninsula fit perfectly.

Moreover, Ice-Fire Island lay extremely far north, where auroras could be seen and white bears roamed—

only Kamchatka, Alaska, or the Chukchi Peninsula could match this.

The Chukchi Peninsula and Alaska’s geography did not match Ice-Fire Island’s description.

The Chukchi Peninsula was tundra, not the lush, resource-rich forests described in the novel.

Though some believed Ice-Fire Island was the Aleutian Islands,

the Aleutians were plagued by strong winds and fog, their land covered only in grasses and moss, with no forests.

Kamchatka Peninsula lay far enough north to witness auroras,

But the Aleutian Islands are plagued by strong winds and rain fog, their surface entirely covered in meadows and moss, with no forests.

The Kamchatka Peninsula lies far enough north to witness the aurora borealis,

The island’s temperature is not high, the snowline on the mountains is low, winter snowfall is abundant, and there is drift ice on the sea.

Moreover, the Kamchatka Peninsula is the most densely volcanic region in the world,

with volcanoes erupting everywhere, lava flowing freely, and numerous hot springs,

geysers, and other features—truly a fusion of ice and fire.

This matches the original intent behind Zhang Cuishan and Yin Susu naming the island Ice-Fire Island.

Furthermore, Kamchatka is neither barren nor poor in resources; its flora and fauna are extremely rich, and in summer it is lush and green,

with snow dusting the green fields in magnificent splendor, just as described in the book.

Ice-Fire Island has deer, no horses, no snakes—exactly the characteristics of the Kamchatka Peninsula.

Ice-Fire Island experiences southerly winds in summer and northerly winds in winter, consistent with the monsoon patterns of the Eurasian continent.

Although the Kamchatka Peninsula does not fully lie within the Arctic Circle,

its latitude is very high, and during summer the sun remains above the horizon for most of the time,

even at night it is a white night, like twilight after sunset.

In winter, most of the time is a long, endless night, matching the book’s description of six months of daylight

and six months of darkness, where east, west, south, and north are hard to distinguish, and the direction where the sun rises cannot be called east.

All these factors indicate that the Ice-Fire Island in “The Heaven Sword and Dragon Saber” is the Kamchatka Peninsula.

Or rather, Master Jin created Ice-Fire Island based on the natural conditions of the Kamchatka Peninsula.

And the reason Zhang Jie was able to find Ice-Fire Island so easily

is because he had a secret weapon: his good younger brother—Zhang Wuji!

Here it must be said that Zhang Wuji is truly a destiny-born prodigy, once in a hundred years,

exceptionally gifted—he remembered the route to Ice-Fire Island after just one journey with his parents.

If Zhang Wuji had been like an ordinary ten-year-old child,

unable to recall the route to Ice-Fire Island, he would not have been tricked by Zhu Zhangling,

would not have obtained the Nine Yang Divine Art, and could not have neutralized the cold poison of the Cold Yin Palm.

One can only say: every sip and bite is predestined.

For Zhang Wuji, his fate is determined by heaven, not by himself!

At first, when Zhang Jie asked Zhang Wuji to guide him to find Xie Xun, Zhang Wuji was unwilling.

But when Zhang Jie said, “Younger brother Wuji,

you don’t want your righteous father to be alone and forlorn on Ice-Fire Island, do you?”

Zhang Wuji immediately eagerly led Zhang Jie to Ice-Fire Island.